Canberra Close Up: Allan Hawke, a true public servant

Allan Hawke has had a fascinating career, but something you might not know about him is his heritage which includes bushrangers, the Blundell family, convicts and being sent to live with his Aunt at a young age!

With the old adage, give a busy person a job, we asked Dr Allan Hawke to feature in our next Canberra Close Up, and he took up the challenge with gusto!

Described as one of Queanbeyan's favourite sons, Dr Hawke was educated in Queanbeyan then went onto study at the ANU.

From there his career was wide ranging and successful becoming Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Paul Keating, secretary of Veteran affairs transport and regional services, High Commissioner of New Zealand, as well as the Chancellor of the ANU.

However Dr Hawke's heritage is equally as wide ranging as Alex discovered during their chat.

When Allan Hawke was young he was sent to live with his great aunt because his parents were very busy with their jobs.

"At one stage my brother and I were pretty much rivals and used to fight a bit, hard to believe now, and so I got dispatched off to Aunty Vi's, which was just two blocks away."

Dr Hawke says he didn't see this as a punishment and now regards his Aunt as one of the great influences on his life.

"I regarded it as a great privilege, and one day I was going on about something or other, and my great aunt said 'You better not go outside or the wind might blow the tickets away.' She was a great character."

His great aunt was an interesting person, and at one stage lived in Blundell's cottage.

Dr Hawke decided to investigate more about this connection with the Blundell family, and found that his great grandmother on his mother's side, Rosanna, was from the Blundell family.

On his father's side, Dr Hawke's heritage is just as interesting, with his research unearthing a convict who turned into a bushranger.

"He was called Beaumont, but because he became such a notorious bushranger, out the back of Captain's Flat, many of his ancestors changed their name from the French spelling of Beaumont to Bowman."

Beaumont was a convict and tried to kill a man in Yorkshire.

After being transported to Picton, he then made his way to Captain's Flat.

Dr Hawke says he was a "bad lad, and one of his sons fell under his influence for awhile but the rest of the family were pretty much model citizens."

One wonders how Allan Hawke has had all this time to research his family heritage given his different careers, but for Dr Hawke it has been a life long passion.